Kiseki
by AdayaSage
Summary: It was all Momoi's idea. Generation of Miracles era fluff. Their last good day of middle school


It was Momoi's idea.

Kuroko should have known better than to go along with it, but all of her data helped make her especially persuasive. A month of vanilla milkshakes was worth any potential disaster. Because that's what this plan was…A disaster waiting to happen.

The ringing digital noises from the arcade were loud even from where the he stood on the sidewalk outside. Kuroko drew in a breath before pushing past the doors. He had never been to an arcade before. He preferred books to screens and basketball to just about any other activity so he had never really gotten the appeal of video games.

"What are we doing here?" Aomine Kun said as Kuroko walked in. He had been lounging by the entrance with a bored expression.

"Momoi San seems to think that we could all use some fun."

"That girl can be so stupid sometimes. The last thing I want to do is waste my time here."

Kuroko frowned at the tone in Aomine's voice. It was irritable and annoyed; his eyes were sharp as he looked condescendingly around the arcade. This attitude was growing more and more prevalent as of late. He was always bored now, and restless. His abilities had turned from being a gift to being a curse. All these things, Kuroko felt, were adding up. The line would be crossed soon and once Aomine was over it he wasn't sure that any of them would be able to get him back. Instead of voicing his concern though he kept quiet, unable to put into words the thoughts that were swirling inside his head.

"Tetsu Kun!" Momoi-San's cheerful voice came from the left of him, before he had a chance to dodge the impending affection she wrapped him in a crushing hug.

"I can't breathe, Momoi San." He gasped. She let go, blushing slightly, and turned her attention to Aomine.

"We've been waiting on you two for ages! I started to think you wouldn't show."

"After what you blackmailed me with? There was no way I wouldn't be here." Aomine said moodily.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Her tone was saccharine sweet but Kuroko could see the edge of annoyance in her eyes. "Now come on, we've already started without you."

Momoi led the pair through the arcade. The flashing lights from the games and the announcer shouting 'game over' rang loudly through Kuroko's head. He could already feel the headache coming on. But he knew the real reason Momoi San had dragged them here.

It was for Aomine Kun. If anyone recognized the growing anger burning inside him it was his childhood friend. This was one of many efforts to cool him down before he burnt himself out.

Kuroko had never doubted Momoi's intelligence, but he was certainly starting to doubt her sanity. After all the six of them had been clashing on the court lately, wouldn't taking them off of it make things even worse?

They rounded a group of racing games and Kuroko couldn't help but gape at the sight before him. Kise and Midorima were playing some sort of dancing game together while Akashi stood back and laughed at how poorly they were doing. Akashi had a bag of marbles in his outstretched hand, no doubt Midorima's lucky item of the day.

Akashi was laughing. Midorima was focusing so intently on the screen in front of him that Kuroko thought he might have a permanent wrinkle in his brow. They looked so ordinary, if it wasn't for the word 'Teiko' emblazoned on their jackets anyone might have actually mistaken them for such.

"Idiots." Aomine said with a huff. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Kise jumped, missing a few beats on his game at the harshness of Aomine's words. Akashi gave him a stern look before turning his attention back to the screen. Midorima didn't even react.

"Dai Chan! We're having fun!" Momoi said with a pout. Her pink ponytail bobbed as she folded her arms angrily over her chest. Aomine gave her a disinterested look.

"I told you to stop calling me that." He said it coldly, and in a quiet tone but that didn't keep Kuroko from hearing. Nor did it keep him from seeing the tears that were beginning at the corners of Momoi's tender eyes. He knew his teammates could only play nice for so long before their large personalities and even larger egos tore at them. Kuroko suppressed a sigh.

"Well, since we're here, maybe we should play a few games." He said it with a smile for Momoi's sake.

"Yay!" She smiled. "I'll show you where to buy some tokens." Momoi lit up as she took his hand and led him to the machine. He gave it enough yen to get a sizable amount of game tokens.

"I really admire what you're trying to do, Momoi San." He said as he split the tokens up into two even piles. He put half into his pocket and scooped the rest into his hand.

"Thank you, Tetsu Kun. I just…Miss his smile." Her face was downcast as she said this. Kuroko was having a hard time dealing with Aomine's sudden change of attitude but he couldn't imagine how hard it was for Momoi. She had known him since he first discovered basketball, now she was watching it ruin him.

"We'll bring it back together." He said firmly. She smiled at that.

Kuroko headed back to where the others were still playing. Akashi had traded places with Kise and he and Midorima were so intent on beating each other, the focus in their gazes was almost laughable. Murasakibara was watching now too, with a bag of opened candy in his hand.

"Hey Kurochin, wanna race?" He asked in his characteristically slow speech.

"In a second." Kuroko replied before walking up to Aomine. Aomine quirked his brow but otherwise didn't seem very interested in Kuroko's presence. Kuroko grabbed Aomine's wrist and turned his hand palm up, ignoring the protest. The coins clinked as they changed hands and Kuroko's expression told him that there was no room for debate. "Since you're here you might as well play."

"Fine, whatever. There's nothing better to do anyway." Aomine walked off before he could see the smile that stole over Kuroko's lips.

Momoi grinned and proceeded to follow Aomine over to the game he had chosen. A basketball dunking game. Of course. Kuroko sighed before turning to see Murasakibara was already waiting for him on some toy version of a motorcycle. Kuroko joined him on the second motorcycle and inserted his tokens. There was a glint in Murasakibara's eyes and for once Kuroko was glad that off the court is where they did best.

"Minechin seems especially out of sorts today. It's annoying. He's always getting so worked up."

Kuroko nodded his agreement. He leaned into the motorcycle, trying to get it to turn the right way as the pixel version of him skidded down city road ways. This game was increasingly unrealistic. He had run into more café's on this one street than they had in the city. Tables and chairs were flying, patrons were running away.

Despite Kuroko's poor racing skills he still beat Murasakibara. It wasn't very surprising though. Instead of leaning into any of the turns Murasakibara had been too busy trying to find the right kind of candy at the bottom of the bag.

Kuroko turned to see where Aomine Kun had gone off to only to find that he was standing in the same place, making basket after basket, with a very annoyed Momoi at his side. Sometimes it felt like he had to do everything himself.

He left Murasakibara to his own devices and walked straight over to the game that was just to Aomine's right. It was a game that had two little fighters on the screen. At the ready to beat each other up. Kuroko inserted two tokens into the game and locked his eyes onto Aomine's, issuing a challenge. He pressed start and focused on the game, hitting all the right buttons for a quick K.O.

Aomine gave him an annoyed look and strode over to the machine. "This game looks too easy." He stuffed the mountain of tickets he had earned thanks to his perfect shooting game, into his school bag. He inserted two tokens of his own into the fighting game.

"**Player two has entered the game.**" Rang the voice from the machine.

It was 30 to 12. Momoi was cheering. The others had gathered around to watch the battle that was going on between the shadow and the ace. And no one, except for Kuroko, could believe what was happening.

Aomine was losing…badly. Momoi was standing at Kuroko's side, cheering him on as he won fight after fight. Aomine looked like the vein that was bulging in his forehead was going to burst.

"It is a good day for Aquarius's." Midorima said sagely.

"Maybe Kuroko should leave basketball and take up video games instead." Akashi joked.

Murasakibara crunched loudly on his candy, engrossed in the battle but keeping a look of boredom plastered to his face. Kise, true to nature, was using this as an opportunity to poke fun at Aomine.

"You would think all of those ball handling skills would have made you better with your hands." Kise smiled. "Combo!" He commanded as Aomine clenched his teeth. "Push the red button! No…that was blue. Are you color blind Aominecchi?"

Aomine was positively seething as Kuroko defeated him for the 35th time. "**K.O.!**'The game announced proudly. '**Loser!**' flashed across Aomine's side of the screen. His knuckles were gripping the controls so tight Kuroko was sure that he would break them.

"Seems like you exaggerated that line…" Kuroko stated. "'The only one who can beat me is me'."

Momoi looked worriedly towards Aomine, fully expecting to have to break up a fight between her two favorite boys, but she didn't have to.

Kuroko's eyes widened as Aomine started to shake. His fingers loosened from the controls and his shoulders shook. He was laughing. The smile on his face lit up the dim arcade. Momoi was practically beaming at him. A smile stole across Kuroko's face and he was nearly laughing himself.

Kise immediately joined in, eager not to be left out and before they knew it everyone was smiling or laughing at something that hadn't even been mildly funny. They all laughed, no doubt worrying the other patrons of the arcade but in that moment they didn't care. Least of all Kuroko.

For being named the Generation of Miracles they hardly ever experienced anything miraculous. But this, he thought as he looked around at the teammates who played together but were hardly ever actually a team, were knee deep in a miracle of their own.

As they went their separate ways for the night they all bid each other a good night, all said goodbye in a polite, almost friendly fashion. Kuroko smiled to himself as he watched Aomine and Momoi walk towards the station together; the pink crown on her head a perfect souvenir from one of their last good days of middle school.


End file.
